The Millenium development goals (MDGs) call for reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. This goal was adopted in large part because safe drinking water has been seen as critical to fighting diarrheal disease. Source protection is considered the main intervention area to achieve this goal. However, research worldwide that has shown that even drinking water which is safe at the source is subject to frequent and extensive fecal contamination during collection, storage and use in the home. This contamination is through the introduction of cups, dippers or hands, contamination by flies, cockroaches, and rats. Even piped water supplies of adequate microbial quality can pose infectious disease risks if they become contaminated due to unsanitary collection, storage conditions and practices within households.

To reduce this problem, point-of-use water treatment has been advocated as a means to substantially decrease the global burden of diarrhea and to contribute to the MDGs. However, research indicates that there are many unanswered questions around Household water treatment (HWT) that require small or medium scale epidemiological studies and randomized controlled trials, especially with regard to effectiveness, acceptability and identifying suitable target populations. Some of the most urgent questions to be resolved are:(1) How much of the currently cited disease reduction of HWT is due to bias? (2) What is the effect of HWT on nutritional status (weight gain and growth)?(3) At which populations should HWT be targeted? (4) Is it acceptable and sustainable in poor communities where the risk of diarrheal disease is high.

hypothesis: Do household water treatment with chlorine reduce diarrhea among underfive children? hypothesis: Do household water treatment with chlorine acceptable in the community?

To assess the prevalence of diarrhea among under five children [ Time Frame: four months ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]

weekly visit of the household for the presence of diarrhoea among underfive for four months in both the intervention and control groups

Secondary Outcome Measures:

To assess the weight gain among the intervention and control groups of under five children [ Time Frame: At the beginning and end of the study ( 4 months interval) ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]

This is designed to assess whether there is weight gain (objective outcome) in children assigned to the intervention group compared to the control group. It is supplement to the prevalence of diarrhea which is subjective outcome for this study

Usual practice (the use of "Jerrican" for water storage, which is considered as safe storage)

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

1 Month to 59 Months

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

All children under five years of age in the randomly selected clusters of Kersa district

Exclusion Criteria:

seriously sick children in the randomly selected clusters of Kersa district

Contacts and Locations

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01376440